“So in the short term, if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote on whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote. I will veto that vote, because I’m absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the right thing to do.”

Obama argued that he has merely “expanded my authorities” – not broken any laws:

“What we’ve done is we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action and prosecutorial discretion as far as we can legally under the existing statute, the existing law. And so now the question is, how can we get a law passed.”

Obama called the “political process” a “separate track”:

So we’re going to have to keep on with the political process on a separate track. But in the meantime, we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that we implement executive actions as we’ve discussed.

In addition to these “shortcuts,” the immigration law must be changed, as well, Obama said:

“There are only so many shortcuts. Ultimately, we have to change the law. And people have to remain focused on that.”